Chapter 4: What Was That?

No one was interested in busting their ass on our laps, but Matt jogged up beside me.

“Get ready,” he said as we reached the second corner of the gym.

“For what?” I asked.

“That” he said pointing at Ellery. She was bouncing from foot to foot next to Coach Hendrix and then I heard him say, “I know you can all run faster than that! Show them how it’s done Ellery.”

She broke into a run; long purposeful strides at first, but as those long legs churned across the floor she gathered speed and began closing in on us.

“Oh shit!”

“Run,” ordered Matt.

Everyone picked up their pace, but it wasn’t until Coach Murphy yelled “if she beats you then you owe us another lap,” that panic set in.

“Spread out! Don’t let her pass us!” someone yelled.

“It won’t stop her!” yelled Lee.

Everyone was pushing themselves, although I knew that the three guys in front of me and Matt were shifters too and weren’t going full out. As we approached the back stretch of the first lap Ellery began picking guys off, occasionally adding insult to injury by lobbing comments at them.

I heard “if you’d pull your pants up you’d increase your speed,” and “didn’t I beat you last year too?” It was brutal. She dodged and weaved through the crowd like a running back, demoralizing those at the back of the pack.

As the second lap began we had broken into two groups with a gap between us that kept increasing. Ellery kept pace with Lee at the front of the second group for about another quarter of a lap before patting him on the upper arm and leaving him behind. At the halfway mark there were only seven of us in front of her, most of them shifters whose animals were known for speed and or endurance.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I heard Matt mutter as she came up behind him. “Ellery, please don’t pass me.”

“Oh come on, Matthew, where’s your competitive spirit?”

“It must have fallen out when we did our stretches,” he quipped.

She laughed and I tripped over my feet, stumbling for a few steps before regaining my running rhythm. It slowed me down long enough that, when she pushed past Matt, she had caught up to me.

I braced myself for what she was going to say, but to my surprise and disappointment she didn’t say anything. She kept turning her head to look at me, however, with a grin on her face that I knew spelled trouble.

As we approached the last corner she said “stop holding back, Alexander,” and started to pass me. I put my head down and powered past her, feeling her drop off her pace.

“Hate to see you leave, love to watch you go,” she called as she slowed down further, allowing Matt and two others to catch and pass her.

We stood there, bent over, breathing like freight trains from what amounted to a sprint from hell as the rest of the runners came in. Ellery walked over to Coach Murphy to collect our paperwork from him and then sauntered into the coach’s office, shutting the door. She didn’t even seem to be breathing hard.

“Damn,” a guy named Nick who’d finished second gasped. I was pretty sure he was some type of large cat shifter, but his scent wasn’t one I had ever encountered before. “I’d heard about this, but I didn’t believe it. Fuck man. Matt, you could have warned me.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” he said, leaning against the wall while the guys she’d beaten were instructed to take their extra lap at an easy pace.

“She’s not human is she?” I muttered.

“Nope.” Matt grinned at me. “Still planning on making a move?”

“Maybe. What is she?”

“No. Fucking. Clue.”

I peeked through the window in the office door and saw her bent over the desk working. “What’s she doing in there?”

“Stat sheets for everyone trying out. Possible positions, GPA, height, and a whole bunch of other stuff she’ll get from the drills we’ll do today and tomorrow.”

“None of this strikes you as odd? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy having beautiful women around, and she’s certainly…..athletic, but your dad is the coach. Why is she compiling that data instead of him or Coach Murphy?”

Matt raised an eyebrow. “If you had someone who wanted to do the boring paperwork wouldn’t you let them? And if you had someone whose insight and suggestions helped you win ten banners in four years, who didn’t need to be paid, wouldn’t you use them?”

“Well, when you put it like that….but I still don’t get it.”

He patted me on the back. “Don’t worry, you will.”

Our conversation was halted by the coaches calling us back onto the court where they put us through our paces; doing timed runs, vertical jumps, passing drills and defensive slides. After each drill Coach Murphy ran more paperwork to her, but the burning sensation in my lungs kept me from focusing on much of anything.

During loose ball drills I knew she’d emerged from the office without even looking. That amazing scent carried over the smell of sweaty teenage guys and assaulted me. There was no other way to describe it.

My toes curled in my sneakers and I whipped around to see her hand Coach Hendrix an index card. He took it without a word, read it and looked at her in surprise.

“Ellery, it’s only the end of day one.”

She shrugged. “Waste their time if you want, but we both know those five are the first to go. I could have given you ten names.”

Coach Hendrix burst out laughing. “I’m sure you could, but you know I don’t cut anyone on the first day.”

She shrugged again. “Suit yourself; it will just make tomorrow that much harder. James just texted me that he’s here to take me home so I’m going to head out. You can check my work against the stats sheets on the desk. See you tomorrow.”

“Good night, Ellery.”

She jogged over to the office and came out with a letter jacket that she shrugged into and then with a flip of her hair she left the gym. Once she was gone I felt myself grow cold, like I had been shut off from a fire.

I jogged in place to keep myself from cramping. I knew then that I had to find a way to get to know her better. I had too many questions and she was the only one who could give me the answers.